Chapter Fourteen
By Friday, the shoppe looked like a different place.
We’d hired a man to take away the large items that weren’t magical, along with a lot of the general clutter that had accumulated over the past twenty years: cleaning supplies that were so covered in dust they needed new supplies just to clean them; old clothing of Da’s that he’d left lying around or forgotten entirely; boxes of display stands and picture frames that we didn’t have items for.
While Bri had sorted the smaller pieces, Finlay and I cleaned the shoppe from top to bottom, buffing surfaces till they shined, washing all the windows so that light flooded the shoppe in a way I hadn’t known was possible.
Some of our easy familiarity had returned, but I ruminated on my apology, which had been awkward and clumsy, even for me. A part of me wished I could take it back, deliver something more polished and elegant. Something worthy of Finlay Barrow.
But whatever had existed between us back at my house—before Argyle interrupted and I lost my nerve—was gone.
At least from Finlay’s side. I hadn’t seen him blush once in the past week, except when I’d accidentally walked in on him changing in the storage closet.
I’d made a sound somewhere between a gasp and a cough, only catching a glimpse of his horrified face before I ran out of the shoppe.
I escorted myself to the nearby fountain, where I splashed ice cold water on my cheeks.
I’d seen Finlay without a shirt before, so why was I so flustered? When had I become the fawning, foolish schoolgirl swooning at the sight of a bare chest?
I knew the answer, of course. It was just before we’d almost kissed, in that liminal space of possibility and promise.
In that moment, I saw him as something more than a best friend, and while I knew that kind of thinking could only lead to trouble, it was becoming harder and harder not to entertain the notion.
Especially when he wasn’t wearing a shirt.
“Well done, lassies,” he said as we lined up outside the shoppe to appreciate our hard work. “Come Monday, this place is going to be crawling with customers. You’ll be rich, Willow. Like you always dreamed.”
Being rich had never been my dream, not really. Maybe I obsessed about money, but that was because I didn’t have it. I only wanted what everyone wanted: safety and security.
I forced a smile and reached into my pocket.
“Here,” I said, holding out a brass key to Bri.
I’d had the locks changed so that I could have three new keys made.
I’d also installed a trip-wire security system that would set off a string of bells if someone managed to get through.
I wouldn’t be around to hear the ringing if it happened at night, but I hoped a neighbor would.
I’d even contemplated a guard dog, but I worried it wouldn’t get along well with Argyle.
“What’s this for?” Bri asked, taking the key. I’d strung it with a burgundy ribbon.
“You’re my partner,” I said. “If I’m ever ill or lose my key, which I think we all know is not outside the realm of possibility, you’ll have one, too.”
I turned to Finlay and pulled a key with an emerald ribbon from my pocket. “I know you didn’t ask to be part of this,” I said, “but I want you to have one, too.”
When he didn’t put out his hand, I felt my entire face heat.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“For Pete’s sake, Finlay. If you don’t want it, you can just say so.”
“No, I do. Want it. The key, that is.” Finlay finally took it from me, saving us both from further humiliation. “You know what this means?” he asked me and Bri.
We both shook our heads no.
“It means we don’t have to work this weekend. We should take a trip, if you’re up for it.”
“A trip?” Bri asked. “Where?”
“Jack did a little more digging for us. He knows someone who might have the answer you’re searching for.
” When Finlay turned his full, wonky-tooth smile on Bri, I felt that same cold, icky feeling I’d felt when I found out she spent time at his house.
These things that had once belonged only to me were being given to someone else, and though I knew it was no one’s fault, in that moment, a small, ugly part of me despised them both.
Fortunately, despising people came so much more naturally to me than liking them.
By the time Finlay arrived at the house in the morning with Jack Turner’s cart and pony, which he had generously agreed to loan us for free, I’d resolved not to let my feelings for either one of them divert me from my plan.
As soon as we’d made a few good sales, I would save the money and travel to the Sapphire Isles myself, cutting out the middleman.
My money would be as good as anyone else’s, and as Da used to say, you had to spend money to make it.
“Where is this friend of Jack Turner’s? He’s not another grimoire conservator, I hope,” I said as I climbed onto the bench with Finlay. Bri had offered to sit in the back, since she didn’t want to inadvertently touch one of us.
“No, and he is a she. I’m taking us to a witch.”
“Excuse me?” Bri said, popping up between us. “A witch?”
“Is that a problem?” he asked. “You’re a witch, after all.”
“Mm-mm.” Bri shook her head. “I am not a witch. I’m cursed.”
Fergus let out a long neigh. “Even Fergus disagrees,” I said.
“Witches are born with magic,” Bri clarified. “I wasn’t born this way.”
“When were you cursed, exactly?” I asked.
She sank back down into the cart, crossing her arms on her knees and burrowing her head. “I don’t want to talk about that.”
I’d thought I was stubborn and intractable. I turned around to face her. “Then how are we supposed to help you? We can’t break a curse if we don’t even know where it came from.”
“All we need to do is find the grimoire,” she mumbled. “Why do you have to complicate everything?”
She had a point there, but I wasn’t about to admit it. “Whoever cursed you must have that grimoire, though, right?”
“Not necessarily,” Finlay said.
I turned back toward him.
“What?” he asked when he saw the surprise on my face.
“I did a little research. For Bri,” he added, rather unnecessarily.
“Anything could have happened to that grimoire since the curse was placed.” He softened his voice when he turned to Bri.
“Though it would be good to know where and when it happened, at least roughly.”
Bri’s sighs were becoming as familiar as Finlay’s blushes, though I found them far less endearing. “I was a baby. And it happened here, in Achnarach.”
Finlay’s silence told me he was as shocked by this as I was. Who in their right mind would curse a baby?
“That’s why your parents left?” I asked.
“Yes. But in doing so, they also ensured I wouldn’t be able to lift the curse as long as I lived in Carterra. Not because they wanted me to suffer, but because they didn’t want something even worse to befall me.”
Now it was my turn to sigh. “Look, I know you don’t want to share everything with us, but I think it’s time you tell us the entire story, Bri. Otherwise, we’re doing all this for nothing.”
“I will. Tonight, at the inn. For now, can we please talk about something else?”
“What’s the point in waiting?” I started, but Finlay spoke over me.
“Whatever you want, Bri.”
I was glad he was here, that it wasn’t just Bri and me again, but I also felt self-conscious. Like maybe they would talk about me when I wasn’t around. At least when I was alone, I didn’t have to worry about what other people thought of me.
To pass the time, Finlay told us more about the witch we were visiting.
But his voice was soft and soothing and I’d hardly slept last night, so it wasn’t long before I felt my head sagging to the side, eventually coming to rest on Finlay’s shoulder.
By the time I woke up, it was nearing dark, and I’d left a lovely splotch of drool on his shirt.
“Sorry,” I said, wiping my face as I blinked and sat up. “I didn’t realize I was so sleepy.”
“That’s okay. You can’t insult me when you’re sleeping.” He said it with a smile, but I was still groggy and confused, and he must have seen the hurt on my face, because he punched me lightly on the arm. “I’m just kidding, Willow.”
“Aye, I know.”
Fortunately, we were arriving in Abundance.
It was a lovely seaside community north along the coastline, a place where people came in the summer for swimming and sailing.
During the winter, it was inhabited by the smaller population of year-round residents who owned homes nearby.
The resorts were already closed for the season.
“Jack told Marcail we’d come after dinner. I thought we could eat at a restaurant and then go to her house?”
I must have missed the part where Finlay explained that we’d be staying with the witch herself.
The only restaurants open were pubs and alehouses, which suited me fine.
We took a corner booth at a pub called the Plump Poodle and ordered fish and chips, sipping our cider as we studied the other patrons.
The namesake poodle was wandering idly among the tables, searching for scraps and snuffling the occasional ankle of interest.
“So Jack Turner is friends with a witch?” I asked.
“They went to school together,” Finlay said. “She’s a hedge witch, mostly healing and potions. But she teaches at the university here, and it has an extensive collection of grimoires. She’ll give us access in the morning.”
I chewed on a hot, salty chip, wondering if there was any way to approach this delicately. Finlay was polite and kind and preferred to wait for Bri to open up, and it seemed he expected the same from me. But as far as I could see, all this tiptoeing around Bri’s feelings was a waste of time.
“When are you going to tell us about the curse?” I asked, reaching for another chip.
“Willow,” Finlay whispered.
“What? I tried to broach it more tactfully, but the fact of the matter is that we can’t find anything here if we don’t know what we’re looking for.”
“Still—”